tule. The basic wage of a labourer is around f11, a semi-skilled rigger only earns £12 11s, On top of the basic rate, a tonnage bonus is made throughout the steel industry. But at Shelton the men only receive a small bonus, as much as £7 less than that at some other factories. A prominent trade unionist, Councillor Gerry Crowther, says that so far there has been a blanket of silence about the dispute in both the local and national press. He attributes to the embarrassment it would cause to the management, in their fight against steel nationalisation, if the poor state of labour relations became publicly known. In a pamphlet against public ownership of steel, Sir Richard Summers gave, as one of his principal reasons, the happy labour relations existing within the industry might be jeopardised. Since he wrote that, maintenance men at John Summers’ Shotton plant have been on a lightning strike and its Shelton subsidiary is a seething cauldron of discontent. Some while ago, I wrote an article in Tribune on Sir Richard Felix Summers’ bizarre personal position. On the one hand, he is on the board of the London Midland Region of the British Transport Commission, helping to make nationalisation a success, while at the same time he sits on the boards of four steel firms, tenaciously fighting to the last ingot to stop steel being nationalised. One of his representatives "phoned Tribune, not to explain how Sir Richard felt in his Gilbertian position, being for and against nationalisation at one and the same time, but to complain that, throughout my article, I had omitted to mention his knighthood. I realise what a grave error I made in failing to mention his title, and
would like to apologise publicly to
him. I hope my serious omission has
not directly caused the present
industrial strife.